SCAMMERS IMPERSONATING TOWN PLANNING & ZONING OFFICIALS

In the past month, Town staff have received a large number of complaints about scammers impersonating Town planning staff and Town advisory board members requesting payment of fees from applicants. These emails are part of a phishing scam and should be reported to the proper authorities and deleted. The emails are coming from townofmillsriver.gov@usa.com and often include a fake invoice for payment of thousands of dollars. This is a phony email account - all Town of Mills River email accounts end with @millsriver.gov.

The Town will never request an applicant to wire money for payment of permit fees, and normal permit fees almost never cost thousands of dollars.

If you receive a suspicious email, do the following:

1) CONFIRM IT: You can call Town Hall at (828) 890-2901 or can email Town staff at info@millsriver.gov to make sure no permit fees are owed and confirm if it is a scam email.

2) REPORT IT: Submit a simple scam report to the Federal Trade Commission at https://reportfraud.ftc.gov. If you were the victim of this scam and paid money to the scammers, report the internet crime and loss of funds through the following FBI link: https://www.ic3.gov

3) DELETE IT: Delete the email. Do not open attachments or click on links which can compromise your security.

For more information on phishing, spoofing, and other scams, visit https://www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/common-frauds-and-scams/spoofing-and-phishing